Building Community

Can YA Love supporters,

Its good to be back this week. In our last post we talked briefly about our organization's mission and vision and our first international project in Nairobi, Kenya. We've continued to receive an outpouring of support from lots of people and we are deeply humbled by this. This week I'd like to talk about one of the benefits we envision coming out of our projects, togetherness.

In our search for other groups and people who are doing similar gardening projects around the world, we found that one thing they all have in common is community. Whether it was a garden in Philadelphia, Vancouver, or Kenya the coming together of a community was a common theme among all of them. Community gardens create physical locations where people from all walks of life can work together for a common good, to grow food for themselves and their families. Often times these gardens are in places that were either too dangerous for people to congregate or were not conducive to planting. For instance, take a look at this garden in Vancouver. What was once a drug dealer's paradise (lots of concrete and a train overpass) is now a burgeoning garden. “My Own Back Yard” (which puts NIMBY on its head) has become a place where people feel safe, drug addicts find rehabilitation, and a local economy has taken off.

The positive results we know come from growing food together as a community is what inspired us to call this organization Can YA Love. We envision working with other NGO's, schools, local governments, and residents to create loving communities centered around people's most basic neccessity, food. People might start gardening for any number of reasons; to eat healthier, to save or earn income, or for the environment. But people love gardening because of their relationship with the earth and with others.

To learn more about us or get involved please send an email to info@CanYALove.org.
Peace and Blessings.